Using Windows XP? Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 Support Ends April 8, 2014

Drake2007 said:
In the bad old IRC days - win95 had a nice vulnerability towards DOS attack that crashed the PC. Could take any **** off the internet who was running it. Win98 there's a limit to CPU speed, anything higher (I forget what MHz) would just crash. And by then those CPU speeds meant you should have been running XP. So yeah.. Hardware is a huge determining factor. I'd hate to try use
MS-DOS and Win3.1 nowdays.. nightmare just to get the mouse to work.

so I guess my point is- Tech moves forward. XP must die
Click to expand...

That does not follow. XP does not have to die at all.

What you said does not scale well. For example Win 95 ran on top of DOS. It was a 32bit OS running on top of a 16 bit OS. It therefore could crash. Win XP, which is based on Win NT was fully 32bit (and later 64 bit) and an app crashing did not make the whole system unstable.

Furthermore your analogy is like saying horses and buggies are defunct while super efficient cars drive on the roads these days, therefore well maintained 1990s Toyota Corollas should be taken off the roads.
 
Drake2007 said:
In the bad old IRC days - win95 had a nice vulnerability towards DOS attack that crashed the PC. Could take any **** off the internet who was running it. Win98 there's a limit to CPU speed, anything higher (I forget what MHz) would just crash. And by then those CPU speeds meant you should have been running XP. So yeah.. Hardware is a huge determining factor. I'd hate to try use
MS-DOS and Win3.1 nowdays.. nightmare just to get the mouse to work.

so I guess my point is- Tech moves forward. XP must die
Click to expand...

You could use a Firewall like the one which later became the Firewall in Norton Internet Security to prevent that.
 
Space_Chief said:
Yup them Stiffies. MS Setup would mark them - at least in the case of Win 3.1 and Word for Windows 2. They'd mark it with name and company name. Pro tip was to write protect the disk, which meant sliding the tab or putting some tape on the hole.



Yeah I thought so too. Apparently it was "limited support" in later versions of Win 95 which explains your CD-ROM. The earlier versions all came of 1.44 MB or 1.2 MB floppy disks.

http://www.usbman.com/Win95 USB Guide.htm
Click to expand...

I was helping out in a computer store when 95 came out. Guess our OEM stiffys saw a lot of use. Didn't you just love it when halfway through the umpteenth disk you'd get read errors and have to abort the entire install :). It would take hours and hours, even on a good day!
 
Drake2007 said:
In the bad old IRC days - win95 had a nice vulnerability towards DOS attack that crashed the PC. Could take any **** off the internet who was running it. Win98 there's a limit to CPU speed, anything higher (I forget what MHz) would just crash. And by then those CPU speeds meant you should have been running XP. So yeah.. Hardware is a huge determining factor. I'd hate to try use
MS-DOS and Win3.1 nowdays.. nightmare just to get the mouse to work.

so I guess my point is- Tech moves forward. XP must die
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone's really disputing that tech must move forward. The issue here (in my opinion) is that a lot of us feel XP is still serviceable. XP will die when it's good and ready, but that won't be for some time yet.

Although I still have some vintage 95/98 software, I wouldn't go back to it because it really is limited in terms of "interfacing" with modern hardware. XP however does not have this problem - at least with the software and other kit we run. If anything, it's getting better and better! Software written at the turn of the century (Office 2000 for example) "goes like stink" when run on the latest processors and MBs with more ram and processing power available to it than the original developers ever thought possible.

I understand however that if you're into hardcore gaming and need to "blow $hit up" in four different parts of the world, in 3D, and at the same time....well you're going to need all the help you can get :)

But for us ordinary Johns, just trying to make a living.....
 
ponder said:
That should be an automated remote 1 click install.
Click to expand...

Yeah try convincing our senior management to sign off on USMT...As it stands now we have to make use of WET and then a zero touch install.

Not really a pain and we did manage to hit those numbers down to about 2000 assets country wide in 6 months.
 
Space_Chief said:
That does not follow. XP does not have to die at all.

What you said does not scale well. For example Win 95 ran on top of DOS. It was a 32bit OS running on top of a 16 bit OS. It therefore could crash. Win XP, which is based on Win NT was fully 32bit (and later 64 bit) and an app crashing did not make the whole system unstable.

Furthermore your analogy is like saying horses and buggies are defunct while super efficient cars drive on the roads these days, therefore well maintained 1990s Toyota Corollas should be taken off the roads.
Click to expand...

It's not an analogy, it's the trend of OS's.

I don't see any horses and buggies riding on the highways, do you?
1990's Corollas won't have to be taken off the roads, that will happen in time when Toyota stops making spares and all the used spares become ridiculously expensive.

And yes I do think that guy in his Model T Ford is wasting his time and resources. It drives like crap and mostly it's inefficient.
But if that guy's happy taking a week to get from Jhb to Dbn then so be it.

Here's some benchmarks comparing power consumption of 2 PC's just 3 years apart in age.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/upgrade-processor-quad-core,2717-11.html
 
Drake2007 said:
It's not an analogy, it's the trend of OS's.

I don't see any horses and buggies riding on the highways, do you?
Click to expand...

I do actually see a few around Cape Town. Mostly poor people from the Cape Flats. Millions of people in China, North Korea, Europe, parts of US, South America, etc still use horses and wagons.

1990's Corollas won't have to be taken off the roads, that will happen in time when Toyota stops making spares and all the used spares become ridiculously expensive.
Click to expand...

But what if people continue to use them because they are able to tinker and adapt more modern parts or make their own? And what if the original parts work better than modern day "disposable" mentality parts of 2013 Toyotas?

And yes I do think that guy in his Model T Ford is wasting his time and resources. It drives like crap and mostly it's inefficient.
But if that guy's happy taking a week to get from Jhb to Dbn then so be it.
Click to expand...

Except Windows XP is nowhere near like that. For many people the ease of use of a familiar interface and/or the need to use software which runs on XP and not on 7/8 are the real return in time and resources. So the analogy fails.

Here's some benchmarks comparing power consumption of 2 PC's just 3 years apart in age.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/upgrade-processor-quad-core,2717-11.html
Click to expand...

That's nice. Except a few watts are not the only measure of value.
 
The XP problem will sort itself out. No one in their right mind will still be using < 4GB RAM in 2014. I know a 64bit version of XP existed but no one seemed to use it.
 
bekdik said:
Are you saying that anti malware software will no longer function?
Click to expand...

No. XP won't get any more security patches so it will become more vulnerable as more zero day exploits are found.

Relying on anti malware only is not wise as they can not keep up with the huge number of variants released every day.
 
Rouxenator said:
The XP problem will sort itself out. No one in their right mind will still be using < 4GB RAM in 2014. I know a 64bit version of XP existed but no one seemed to use it.
Click to expand...
The memory limit is artificial. XP SP1 supported a full 4GB and could be modded to support more. The development mode would load drivers into high memory if more than 4GB was present. Windows server 2003 supports more than 4GB.

The 32-bit versions of Windows 7 can be tweaked to support as much as the 64-bit versions, which themselves are artificially limited, with a registry edit.
 
You can fit a beefy flat-6 Porsche engine to a Beatle - but why?

Windows 7 is the best operating system in the universe at the moment, why not use it? I run 8.1 and its OK too.
 
Rouxenator said:
You can fit a beefy flat-6 Porsche engine to a Beatle - but why?

Windows 7 is the best operating system in the universe at the moment, why not use it? I run 8.1 and its OK too.
Click to expand...

We have a dozen PC's with XP that works perfectly well. You want us to spend R1,000's buying a new OS?
 
Many trying to make software work on 7 would beg to differ at the statement of it being the best. Whatever the case may be if MS made proper use of PAE many more would still be using XP so the argument of it being old and outdated seems void.
 
I sold 3 brand new systems with Windows XP on just last month.

In an Embedded Industrial PC environment sometimes there is no need for more than 1GB of RAM, network connectivity and constant security updates. Some systems just work (e.g. Industrial Automation).

And the manufacturer will be supplying Windows XP drivers for all their products until at least 2016 (even if MS doesn't).
 
What spec PCs are we talking about if you got them with X-pee loaded?

It's actually easier to dev for newer OSes than older ones.
 
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